


banana pancakes

by nikospyrr



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: M/M, siblings!wonseul, uncle nonu
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-01
Updated: 2017-11-01
Packaged: 2019-01-28 03:08:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12596796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nikospyrr/pseuds/nikospyrr
Summary: As far as being an uncle went, Wonwoo liked to think that he was good at it. He's tempted to make the jump and say he was really good, but he doubted he met any of the critiques to support it. In any case, Jinsook had never once called him stupid head, and Wonwoo valued that more than his architecture degree sometimes.





	banana pancakes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wonuza](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wonuza/gifts).



> When I wrote this I had WJSN's Yeoreum in mind, but I won't tag her, seeing as my characterization of her as a five-year-old is completely subjective. 
> 
> This fic is more or less my birthday present to ao3 user uza, because Amber is wonderful and the best that the world has to offer.
> 
> Thank you to an Australian egg, to everyone who supported Uncle Nonu and this fic since... July, and Amber (but that goes without saying).
> 
> Enjoy!

As far as being an uncle went, Wonwoo liked to think that he was good at it. He's tempted to make the jump and say he was really good, but he doubted he met any of the critiques to support it. In any case, Jinsook had never once called him stupid head, and Wonwoo valued that more than his architecture degree sometimes.

He got off the bus at the corner of Haight and Buchanan and walked the two blocks to the apartment on Lily Street. Although narrow and secluded, the wisteria that climbed up the latticework of entranceways and gates brought vibrancy to the otherwise quiet road.

Seulgi was sitting on the bottom step of the staircase leading up to their apartment when Wonwoo arrived, Jinsook standing on the taller step behind her and using the height to play with her mother’s hair, clipping pastel ribbons and stars along the long braid. Wonwoo’s footfalls were loud against the downward sloping sidewalk, making both mother and daughter look up in surprise.

“Uncle Nonu!” Jinsook grinned widely, pulling her hands away from Seulgi’s hair in order to reach out to Wonwoo, and he picked her up without hesitation. Seulgi swiftly used the freedom to pull the accessories out of her braid, not even bothering to greet him. Which was fine, he had other duties to attend to.

“Jinsookie!” He exclaimed, laughing. Jinsook patted her small palms against his cheeks, and he obediently puffed up his cheeks so that her palms bounced against them. She giggled and hit his cheeks just a little bit harder. Wonwoo released all the air in a raspberry fashion and made Jinsook squeal even higher and even louder. He and Seulgi winced simultaneously, not that the little girl noticed.

“I’m hungry,” Jinsook stated, putting her hands down and looking at Wonwoo with wide eyes. “Today we ran out of eggs so we couldn’t make banana pancakes.”

“That explains why your hands aren’t sticky with maple syrup,” he quipped back, but shifted Jinsook in his arms so that he could better look at his sister. “You guys didn’t have breakfast yet?”

Seulgi shook her head, the hints of a smile on her face. “It’s not like you had breakfast either. Buy us banana pancakes, Uncle Nonu.” (The habit of calling each other the names reserved for Jinsook had begun as a way to help her when she was just learning how to speak, and it stuck.)

She stood up and together with Jinsook, fluttered her eyelashes at him as if the thought of cheap and fluffy pancakes weren’t persuasive enough on its own. Wonwoo rolled his eyes, but sighed.

“The Diner on Hayes Street, then?” He stepped towards the sidewalk, bouncing Jinsook lightly.

“Perfect, thanks, bro!” Seulgi replied, like she hadn’t just used Wonwoo’s kindness against him. She skipped ahead of him and Jinsook, her full-blown grin falling slightly as she looked at them.

He caught Seulgi’s disapproving look and frowned. “What now?”

“Jinsook is a big girl; stop picking her up.” She wasn’t wrong—Jinsook was tall for her age, and had already grown to be as tall as Wonwoo’s hips—but Wonwoo couldn’t let himself be bossed around by his big sister. He was buying her breakfast, after all, he could do whatever he pleased.

“I’m cold!” Wonwoo argued, shielding himself with the spite that came part and parcel to being a younger sibling. “She’s like a portable furnace.” To further his point he held Jinsook even closer, practically crushing her into his chest, to which she whined and complained about almost immediately.

“Then whatever happens next is your fault,” Seulgi said forebodingly, staring Wonwoo down and practically daring him to contradict her. She turned around and began to skip down the sidewalk again, Wonwoo following a few steps behind, sticking his tongue out in silent retaliation.

As Seulgi enjoyed the peaceful morning as they walked down Octavia Street, Jinsook clipped several yellow ribbons into Wonwoo’s hair, making him yelp each time she locked the barrette closed (and bruised his head in the process).

 

* * *

 

The Diner on Hayes Street had been there for twenty years, and there was no doubt in Wonwoo’s mind that it would be there for another twenty. It was homey and always warm when you walked in, but especially crowded on weekend mornings because of their famous coconut waffles. Wonwoo loved it most for their banana pancakes and coffee, and it wasn’t long after Jinsook had come into their lives that it became Seulgi’s favorite diner as well.

It wasn’t busy when they walked in, but there was a small queue at the podium looking to be seated. The hostess and owner, a small Filipino woman with warm brown eyes and freckles across her nose, discreetly gestured the three of them to one of the booths in the back as soon as they entered.

“Did she know we were coming?” Jinsook whispered once they had sat down, naturally standing up so that she could reach her mother’s ear.

“I didn’t tell her a thing!” She threw her hands up dramatically, fooling nobody but Jinsook. When Jinsook looked across the table to Wonwoo, her eyes as wide as saucers, he was already shaking his head.

“I didn’t tell her either!” He insisted, pretending to be focused on the menu like he actually needed to look at it all.

The next few minutes were spent with Jinsook openly questioning everything she knew of the world, forcing Seulgi to field her hundreds of questions, while Wonwoo hid his giant grin behind the menu.

“She saw my thoughts about banana pancakes when we were outside! That’s how she knew we were here!”

“Maybe that’s how she knew I was late to work today too,” said an unfamiliar voice. It was thin and somewhat raspy, but warm, just like everything else about The Diner. Wonwoo froze from behind his menu before slowly peeking out at the newcomer.

Standing at the table with a notepad at the ready, was a young man with sandy blonde hair and a winning smile, equal parts genuine and artificial. “I’m Vernon, the new waiter.” He grinned again (slightly more genuine this time), then pointed back at the owner, who threw out an eager thumbs up sign. “She said to go to you guys first.”

“When did you start?” Seulgi said, her head tilted in curiosity. Wonwoo watched the tips of Vernon’s ears go pink as he turned to face her.

“Today! You guys are my first customers ever.” He said hastily, then rushed to look down at his notepad. “C-can I get your orders?”

“Banana pancakes!” Jinsook yelled loudly and excitedly. Although she had a tendency to be shy and wary of strangers, her inhibitions were thrown out the window when banana pancakes were in question. Vernon nodded attentively, writing it down quickly.

“Make that two.” Seulgi amended, more focused on gathering the menus than their flustered waiter.

Wonwoo had been amusing himself with watching their waiter fumble with the menu cards she had handed to him, and jumped when the menu he had been hiding behind was pulled from his hands. “Wha—?!”

Seulgi raised an eyebrow at him, and Wonwoo remembered why there were at the diner in the first place. “Another plate of banana pancakes! Wait—actually, scratch that, sorry—I’ll just eat hers,” Wonwoo gestured towards Jinsook. “I’ll take a coffee, lots of sugar and lots of cream.”

“If you have any confusion, just tell the cook that it’s Wonwoo’s order,” Seulgi said, her tone almost apologetic. “She’ll understand.”

Vernon wrote it all down on his notepad, then smiled so wide that his gums appeared. “Alright, thanks!” He nodded enthusiastically, before hightailing back to the kitchens.

“He seems nice,” Seulgi commented as he walked out of view. Wonwoo nodded in agreement, still in a daze.

 

* * *

 

The banana pancakes were sweet and fluffy and Jinsook stole all of Wonwoo’s banana slices, which was to be expected. Seulgi was pleased to see that Vernon settled into his new job easily, sending him warm smiles every time he passed by, and making Vernon stumble each time.

The trio walked out the doors of the diner and onto the street corner, where the mid-morning sun was finally breaking through the San Franciscan fog. Jinsook waved cautiously to

“Where are we headed now?” Seulgi asked, looking between the two. Jinsook shrugged her shoulders, and Wonwoo followed suit. “How about going to the park?” It was a decent suggestion to Wonwoo but then again, the final decision wasn’t up to him.

Jinsook shook her head. “Museums are more fun. I want to do that instead.” Wonwoo beamed with pride, while Seulgi rolled her eyes. Her phone chirped, indicating an incoming call, and she stepped to the side to answer it.

“You’re so smart!” He cooed, ruffling Jinsook’s hair and annoying her in the process.

Seulgi was frowning when she returned. “That was the Junsun. One of the instructors was called away for an emergency, so they need me to cover his hip-hop intro class.”

“When’s the class start?”

“In half an hour; I think I’ll combine the classes today,” Seulgi sighed. “And here I thought I’d get an extra hour to spend some time with my favorite people.”

She handed Jinsook’s backpack to Wonwoo—he liked the contrast of Jinsook’s bright turquoise Moana backpack against his pale blue denim jacket.

“Be good, okay?” Seulgi lifted her daughter up and kissed her forehead, and Jinsook nodded in determination. She turned to Wonwoo next, and reached up to ruffle his hair (she was careful to avoid the yellow bows resting near his temple), before passing Jinsook to him.

“Don’t go crushing on clueless waiters while I’m gone,” Seulgi said with a smirk.

“That’s really not what happened.” Wonwoo shook his head.

“You stuttered while asking for coffee.”

“A cat can’t catch my tongue anymore?!” Wonwoo defended. He held back from telling Seulgi about who their waiter was really crushing on, for Vernon’s sake and his own.

(Contrary to his sister’s beliefs, Jeon Wonwoo didn’t get crushes. In college, all his time was dedicated to blueprints and physics and tiny scale models, and after he graduated it was just out of the question to think about anything besides landing a position at a design firm, and helping Seulgi with Jinsook. His life was filled to the brim, and he was perfectly fine, despite what Seulgi liked to think.)

“Only if that cat is the new blonde waiter at your favorite diner,” she mused. “Alright, I’m going!” She stepped backward and waved with both hands.

“Bye, mom!” Jinsook and Wonwoo called out in unison. Seulgi turned right, heading back towards the dance studio. They watched as she walked away, and waved until she disappeared from view.

“So which museum did you have in mind?” Wonwoo put Jinsook down when they got to the other side, holding her small hand instead.

Jinsook tapped her chin pensively. “I wanna see the white alligator today. I wanna say hi.” Wonwoo nodded and pulled out his phone to quick search the bus routes to the science museum she had in mind.

Luckily, the bus they needed would stop just across the street, and when the walk sign turned green he held Jinsook’s hand tightly as they traversed the crosswalk. “Sounds like a plan. Can we go to the de Young museum after?”

“Is that fun?” Jinsook always asked good questions. Wonwoo opened his mouth to tell his young niece about the art museum’s new exhibit on the 1960s period of rock and roll in San Francisco, then decided against it. Perhaps an exhibit discussing legal acid dropping and organized chaos wasn’t the best place to take a curious child. Maybe when she was older.

“... Not really.”

“Then I’m sorry, Nonu, but your museum has been chopped.” Jinsook pulled her hand out of Wonwoo’s grasp to mimic the motion of a butcher knife wedging itself on a chopping board, reminiscent of a popular Food Network competition show.

“Where did you learn this!?”

She froze in her position and looked at him, then shrugged. “When Auntie Wendy comes over, she does it whenever Mommy says a silly idea.”

“Does Auntie Wendy do it a lot?”

“All the time!” Wonwoo was cackling until the bus arrived.

 

* * *

  

The bus ride to the Academy took longer than the five minutes Jinsook was patient enough for, and Wonwoo had to pull out his phone and let her play his mobile games. Jinsook had even less patience for his lack of non-puzzle games, so he reluctantly opened up the Youtube Kids app he kept for emergencies—he could cry about his data usage later. In the back of his mind, he heard Seulgi scolding him for resorting to technology when she definitely told him not to and blah blah blah...

The California Academy of Sciences was a strictly rectangular building with a white marble facade, though this betrayed the unique exhibits it housed, if the man-made meadow of a roof didn’t accomplish that first. The Thursday noon crowd was bigger than Wonwoo had expected, and he put Jinsook on his shoulders after they crossed the threshold.

The interior of the museum was a marriage of overgrown nature and meticulous structure. On one side stood a white sphere—the museum planetarium—that touched the lofty ceiling, and on the other was a glass sphere, a greenhouse for a rainforest that teemed with lush green vegetation and butterflies. Separating the two was the sunlit Piazza, where tall glass panels held up with durable yet inconspicuous metal poles blocked off the center, like a calming oasis from the excitement and wonder on either side.

They waved jubilantly at the T-Rex skeleton that greeted them at the front door, walking across the Piazza straight towards the Swamp, an enclosure mimicking the wetlands, set a few meters deep into the floor and protected by a railing with bars too close together for small humans to squeeze through.

“Do you see him?” Wonwoo asked. He jostled as Jinsook craned her neck to look closer into the shadowy enclosure. He let go of one of her ankles to steady her back with his hand.

“You made me too tall!” She complained, hitting Wonwoo softly atop his head. He carefully set her on the ground, and Jinsook immediately pressed her face up against the railing for a better view.

After a minute or two of searching, Wonwoo heard her gasp. “There he is!” He bent down to match her height, and following her pointed finger until he saw the albino reptile resting in the water, his head just barely visible above the waterline. “Hi, Claude...” Jinsook waved.

Claude gave no indication that he had heard Jinsook, or any other of the thirty other children crowding around his exhibit, instead choosing to continue his nap on the edge of his rock.

“I’m done now.” Jinsook took a step back from the railing.

“What?”

“Let’s go to the park.” She turned around and began to walk back towards the Piazza, making Wonwoo chase after her.

“You don’t want to see the other exhibits?!” He called out, hoping it didn’t sound as desperate as it felt to say.

She stopped for a moment, but continued her march towards the exit. “I want to play on the swings.”

“But Jinsook, there’s tons of other fun stuff!” Wonwoo ran and picked her up from behind, and Jinsook screamed excitedly as he carried her towards the sign touting the exhibits. “Read this one, it sounds super interesting! Oh wait, how about this one?”

“Nonu, I can’t read yet!” She was laughing as Wonwoo held her up off the floor, her legs kicking excitedly.

“You’re the smartest kid I know, of course, you can read!”

“I’m the only kid you know!” Wonwoo held her closer to him to stop her kicking into the air, but was careful to hold her high enough that the heels of her feet hit against his abdomen and nothing lower.

“How about the Color of Life exhibit, hm? You like colors,” He pointed on the map to the exhibit, just beside the planetarium.

Jinsook’s kicking stopped voluntarily and Wonwoo sighed in relief. “I like colors,” she agreed. He put her down, and she placed her hand in his. “I like animals too.” This statement peaked Wonwoo’s interest; it was the first time he had ever heard Jinsook talk about animals before.

“Do you want to be a veterinarian?”

She shook her head quickly. “I like animals, but not a lot. I wanna do something that I really love!” It was an admirable aspiration.

“And do you know what that is, yet?”

“No!” Jinsook was unbothered by the uncertainty, and as if to prove to Wonwoo how little she cared, she skipped ahead to the exhibit that had come into view from behind the sphere of the planetarium.

The Color of Life exhibit was interesting, though not as captivating as Wonwoo had hoped. But, Jinsook was more than satisfied with learning about the colors of the Earth’s flora and fauna, and Wonwoo was content to hang back with the other parents when the growing mass of children proved too much.

He walked along the middle ground of the exhibit and the planetarium besides it, but eventually, he found himself in front of the planetarium’s box office, which was a more like a temporary booth beside a movable schedule of the day’s showings. Wonwoo looked back towards the exhibit, and spotted Jinsook among a small group of kids, playing with a shadow projector. How it related to colors in wildlife, he wasn’t sure.

“You interested in a tour of the universe?” Wonwoo turned back around to the booth. One of the attendants held a single ticket like a playing card up to Wonwoo, a teasing smirk on his face. On his black museum polo was a metal name tag that called him Junhui. “The show begins at 2:00 today. And it’s free.”

“Do you have another ticket for a small child?” Wonwoo asked, and Junhui slid his fingers, producing a second ticket behind the first.

“I also have three more, if you needed it.” He revealed the rest of his ticket hand, and Wonwoo snorted.

The other attendant was dutifully handing out more tickets to the waiting queue, but she stopped momentarily to shove Junhui at his shoulder. “Stop flirting, this is a kid’s museum.”

“Kyungwon, this isn’t flirting. This is a sales pitch!” Wonwoo didn’t know whether he should be offended that Junhui wouldn’t flirt with him, or relieved that he wasn’t flirting at all.

“Excuse me, but aren’t these tickets free?” The three of them turned to who had spoken, a pink-haired man with an impish grin. He had a matching black polo with an Academy emblem stitched into the material, but no plaque that bore his name, and his pink hair was clipped away from his face with plain black barrettes. (They were simple and minimalistic, but incomparable to the three yellow ribbons at his temple, Wonwoo thought smugly.)

Junhui turned to face him with a smile, but let it fall into a sneer immediately after. “Get out of here.” His monotone command only served to empower the man’s smirk.

“I’m your only customer!” True to his word, he had been the last in the queue; not that Wonwoo had been paying attention. “That’s terrible customer service,” he accused, although his grin had pushed up his cheeks to make his eyes into crescents, and made his threat all the more playful.

“Soonyoung, aren’t you supposed to be getting ready?” Junhui raised an eyebrow at him, no doubt used to sidestepping his threats.

“That’s why I’m here!” He preened, his mischievous grin transforming into something more like pride. “Perfectly punctu—”

“You were supposed to be here ten minutes ago, and if you keep messing around, you’ll be late,” Kyungwon said casually, showing Soonyoung the face of her wristwatch. His eyes went wide, and he cursed before turning around and straight down a well-lit corridor behind the booth; Wonwoo was surprised that he hadn’t noticed it at all.  

Kyungwon turned to look at Junhui expectantly. “Thanks,” he said begrudgingly.

She broke into a blinding grin. “You’re welcome!” This too, seemed commonplace to their lives.

Wonwoo couldn’t help but feel like an outsider, like he was watching the scene from the other side of a glass pane. With a pang, he realized that he was used to the feeling—at least with Seulgi and Jinsook it was easier to jump back into the moment.

The atmosphere completely and utterly spoiled, Junhui sighed and looked back at Wonwoo sheepishly, ruffling his auburn hair with his hand. “Did you want these tickets, though? Honestly.”

Grateful for the return of the topic, Wonwoo grinned. “That’d be really cool, thanks.” He reached forward and pulled the tickets from Jun’s hand.

When Wonwoo turned back towards the Color of Life, Jinsook was chatting animatedly with a little boy wearing a highlighter orange shirt, and they were surrounded by a group of other children in matching shirts. They locked eyes just then, and she gave him a very big smile and a wave with both her arms.

He raised a hand to wave back, and took note that the group she was with were all shuffling slowly but surely out of the Color of Life exhibit space, following after one another like they were in a tour—

Wonwoo sprinted towards his niece before she could be swept up in the sea of highly visible children. Junhui and Kyungwon waved goodbye jubilantly.

“I liked that guy,” Kyungwon mused.

“Do you think he realized that he was staring at Soonyoung the whole time?” Junhui shuffled the tickets, and pulled five from the stack, resetting his ticket hand.

Kyungwon scoffed, “I doubt it.”

 

* * *

  

The Osher Rainforest was a four-story dome of tropical rainforest, three levels of it mimicking a rainforest biome, and the bottom level revealing the underside of the flooded forest above. They entered on the forest floor, where Jinsook fluttered to and fro from one interest to the next, much like the butterflies that moved freely around them.

Wonwoo took a picture of a Jinsook besides the pair of resident macaws then sent it to her mother, who responded with a thumbs up emoji and a smiley face. Jinsook took his phone at this point, and filled the screen with pink and green hearts. After it sent she turned about and began to walk up the spiral pathway that wandered up along the sides of the glass sphere.

“Can I have my phone back, please?” Jinsook scoffed, and Wonwoo couldn’t help but feel offended at her disregard for magic words.

“Not yet!” From above Wonwoo could see that Seulgi had responded back with an equal amount of hearts, and that Jinsook was preparing a response of a greater volume. “Let’s go to the aquarium next.”

“I thought you wanted to go to the park?” he taunted.

Jinsook stopped typing to ponder the suggestion. “We can do that after.”

“After the aquarium?”

“Yes!” She said, handing the phone back to him after hitting send with a satisfied sigh. “And then after the park, we can go back to Mommy.” They reached the second floor, a recreation of a Madagascan understory, and Jinsook gravitated to the ceramic plate of orange slices, where two blue morpho butterflies were resting.

Wonwoo found himself agreeing, but remembered the planetarium tickets. He followed Jinsook to the terrariums for various reptiles. He crouched down to meet her at eye level. “How about we watch a really cool show about space, and then go to the park?”

He had no idea what a show called “Tour of the Universe” entailed—although he supposed it was a straightforward explanation. If he was honest, he would’ve preferred a different show, just on the basis that the other show was narrated by George Takei.

Jinsook continued to look at the inhabitants of the glass case, holding an impromptu staring contest with a Madagascan dwarf chameleon. “What’s cool about space?”  
”Let’s find out!” Wonwoo grinned, evading the question. “Space is full of the things that we could only dream of. Stars, aliens, a thousand different worlds with a thousand different lives on them. Space is very cool, Jinsook.”

“Is that what the man with the red hair told you?” She said without changing her focus.

“No! It was all me,” Wonwoo preened, then registered what Jinsook really meant. “How’d you know about him?” Wonwoo took the opportunity to gather her in his arms once again, to which Jinsook had no complaints. She inspected the yellow bow as he walked them back up the pathway.

“I saw you talking to him while I was with my orange friends.” She smiled, obviously pleased with her observation skills.

“Orange—?” Wonwoo shook his head, remembering the sea of highlighters. “I didn’t think you could see who I was talking with.” He had grown to think that Jinsook’s eyesight was just as poor as he and Seulgi’s own, but he supposed that was wrong to assume. Hindsight is always 20/20.

“Did the kitties take your tongue when you talked to him too?” She grinned like a Cheshire cat, and her eyes twinkled mischievously. Wonwoo couldn’t help remember Soonyoung just then; his playful grins only served to soften his sharp eyes, but he was undoubtedly handsome. Not that it mattered to Wonwoo, seeing as he would probably never see the man ever again.

“Nonu never gets his tongue taken, Jinsook,” Wonwoo answered, straightening his shoulders like it meant something to her. “And you’re avoiding the question!”

“What question?” Jinsook asked whilst laughing at her own joke. Wonwoo pinched her cheek impulsively and she squeaked, before succumbing to even more giggles. It was clear to him that the both of them had lost interest with the canopy level of the rainforest, so he headed straight for the single elevator that led down to the underwater pond level beneath the forest floor.

She was still snickering as the elevator descended. Every time she tried to stop she’d look at Wonwoo and burst into laughter once more, and it was exasperating as much as it was endearing in the way that only young kids could be. Wonwoo felt his heart grow one size bigger as he held her in his arms, and he hardly noticed when the elevator opened to the underground level.

“Are you done?” Wonwoo asked plainly, and Jinsook nodded affirmatively (though she was quick to cover her subsequent giggles with her sleeve covered hand).

He followed the crowd that had joined them in the elevator, only vaguely registering the white floors of the holding room, where everyone stopped to check for fugitive butterflies. Jinsook inspected her hoodie thoroughly, airing out her single pocket, while Wonwoo shook his legs as best he could, testing for butterflies that could’ve possibly found their way into the cuffs of his black jeans.

“Do you want to go see the space show before we leave?” He tried again.

The sliding doors of the buffer room opened and Wonwoo let the crowd in front of them pass first, squinting in the sudden darkness. His eyes adjusted, and the darkness gave way to deep blue light filtering in from all around them.

“Okay,” Jinsook replied, finally. Her eyes were already following a school of neon tetra swimming above them. They stood to the left side of the glass tunnel, letting the people walk through to the rest of the aquatic exhibits lay waiting. Wonwoo turned his head and locked eyes with a gigantic Amazonian catfish, before it turned away, moving lazily along the artificial floor.

Wonwoo deposited Jinsook atop a bench that sat along the thick acrylic glass, and she immediately tried to press herself against the glass to better see into the water.

He pulled out his phone to check the time. Besides a standing message from Seulgi (no doubt, full of emoji hearts), they had an hour and a half before they toured the universe. Wonwoo put his phone back in his pocket and followed Jinsook through the tunnel, straight towards the Tidepool to touch the starfish.

 

* * *

 

Sometime between looking at the habitats of the Californian Coast and the Philippine Coral Reef, Wonwoo had gotten into his head that the Academy of Sciences was home to the ocean sunfish—and there was no way to know for sure, seeing as being below the ground level meant an inaccessibility of cellular data.

The ocean sunfish, on average, could have a dorsal-to-anal fin span of 11 feet long, and weigh around 2 tons. The German called them “swimming heads”, due to their seeming lack of a body. As a species, it was far too clumsy and gigantic for its own good and yet had persisted for thousands of years with little variation, one of which was the fusing of its teeth to form a beak that can never close. It was majestic as much as it was more or less a gigantic flattened head with fins at either side, and they (read: Wonwoo) had to see it.

“Nonu, are you sure this is the right way?” Jinsook said, partially muffled because she was speaking into his hair. At some point, Wonwoo had put her on his shoulders so that she could look at some of the larger aquariums better, and there was no time to stop and let Jinsook walk around. She offered no resistance; her energy was waning, and as her naptime approached, sooner or later, she would fall asleep.

“It has to be!” Wonwoo replied (though the distinct lack of ocean sunfish said otherwise). They paused in the middle of a landing: a crossroads. To their right was the stairs leading back to the main exhibition floor, and directly across from them was the elevator bay, which lay on the other side of a long hallway, one side of which was undoubtedly a large aquatic exhibit. With his heart in his throat, Wonwoo kept going forward.

With bated breath, he watched the water for any sign of a gray bony fish the size of a truck. After a minute of silence, just as Jinsook was about to tug at Wonwoo’s hair to pull his attention away, a creature swam swiftly past the wall, making uncle and niece scream as one. It was big and pale, and far too regal to have a nickname akin to a graceless fish head.

“Claude!” Jinsook exclaimed, and Claude turned his massive head as if to look straight at them. Wonwoo felt the hair on his arms stand on end as he met the albino’s red eyes, although in his mind he knew that Claude couldn’t have possibly been able to genuinely lock eyes with him.

He raised a hand in greeting. “Hi, Claude...” The albino alligator gave his wave a scathing glance, before turning away from the edge of the tank and swimming back towards its island in the center. Jinsook petted his head lightly, as if to comfort him in the wake of Claude’s indifference. It helped.

A lone staff member stood beside the archway, his polo an inviting shade of blue to match the aquarium level. Wonwoo wondered whether they were missing their own partner, like Kyungwon and Junhui upstairs, or if they were meant to be alone here.

“Excuse me, do you know where the ocean sunfish lives?” Wonwoo asked as they approached, his stubbornness giving way to desperation. He felt Jinsook’s grip on his hair tighten as she ducked her head closer to his to hide better.

The attendant smiled brightly as Wonwoo approached, eager to help someone with something else besides the location of the pterodactyl exhibit (which was on the second floor, right beside the elevators, you can’t miss it). “If I remember correctly, the _mola mola_ lives in tropical regions of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.”

Wonwoo’s heart dropped into his stomach. “Not here?”

“Unfortunately, not,” the attendant gave him an apologetic grimace. “the ocean sunfish is just too big, and its needs are greater than the Academy can attend to. Strangely enough, you’re the third person to ask me about that today!”

Wonwoo shrugged, relaxing his shoulders and heaving a sigh. “It just seemed like the kind of creature you guys would have here... Do you happen to know the time, and how to get to the planetarium from here?” The planetarium tickets in his pants pocket were all but forgotten, and Wonwoo couldn’t help but feel like he owed it to Junhui and Kyungwon to watch the show.

The attendant checked their watch, then pressed the button to call for an ascending elevator. “It’s twenty minutes past four. To get to the planetarium, take this elevator to the ground floor, and take a right when you exit.”

As the doors opened, they ushered Wonwoo to the lift, In one swift movement he let his shoulder go slack, reaching across with his left arm to grab Jinsook’s body and pull her to hold her in his arms as they stepped inside. He couldn’t help the sigh of relief that followed, and he rotated his shoulder blades to release the tension.

“Just in time for the tour of the universe!” Wonwoo bounced Jinsook excitedly, though his grin couldn’t quite reach his eyes—the absence of the ocean sunfish was a heavy blow.

“The one starting in ten minutes?” Wonwoo nodded and the attendant grimaced immediately.

“You better hurry before they close the doors on you!” The last thing Wonwoo saw before the doors closed was the panic across the attendant’s face.

“What did he say?” Jinsook asked, pushing against his chest to get a better angle on his face. “Nonu, what did the man say?” She repeated, patting Wonwoo’s cheek when her first question was unsuccessful.

“He said that we have to run to the space show when we get out!” He was thankful in that moment, that they were the only people in the elevator. Wonwoo bent his knees in anticipation.

“I wanna run too!” Jinsook yelled, all traces of her earlier sleepiness gone.

“What?!” Wonwoo objected, but she was kicking her legs and he had no choice but to put her down on the floor, lest he let her fall. He rolled his shoulders back and sighed as the elevator slowed in its ascent.

The doors split apart and Wonwoo let Jinsook leave the elevator first, shuffling out of the elevator bay and onto the main floor.

“Do you see the big white circle over there?” He pointed at the Morrison Planetarium that stood round and proud on the other side of the Piazza.

Jinsook nodded. “We’re gonna run there?”

“Yes, but—wait, no!” No sooner had Wonwoo replied, was the little girl off, running away at a speed equal to that of his jogging, but speedy nonetheless.

The two years of experience as the rowdy and walking baby cousin at the family parties had sharpened Jinsook’s evasion skills, and she dodged the passerby with ease. Every few seconds she’d slow down and to look for Wonwoo’s form, then once she found him she’d turn around and pick up her pace again.

Wonwoo, on the other hand, was twenty-five years old and hadn’t had to rush through crowds since he was nineteen and trying to catch the bullet trains during his Study Abroad semester in Japan.

Needless to say, squeezing between oblivious families and wayward strollers was much more difficult than he had expected. After the third near collision with an absent minded six-year-old, Wonwoo forced himself to slow down and focus more on his balance.

At first, that was great; Jinsook slowed down a bit more to keep closer to Wonwoo, and he was all too glad to stop tripping over shoes and strollers. They were practically at the planetarium now; Wonwoo felt like the aquarium attendant’s worries were well-intended, but terribly exaggerated.

The doors to the audience seats were just around the bend of the spherical building, and following the laws of physics, they decelerated along its curve. Wonwoo’s long legs finally had a good use, enabling him to slow down more quickly. Jinsook turned her head one last time to look back at Wonwoo, and then multiple things happened at once.

As Jinsook turned around, Wonwoo saw in his periphery that someone was further ahead of them on the pathway to the amphitheater as well. And that would’ve been fine if they were going at the same speed of Jinsook, But they were standing still, and the distance between them and Jinsook was decreasing exponentially, and Wonwoo was powerless to stop her.

It was a trainwreck in the making, but instead of a train hitting an equally built train, it was Wonwoo’s small four-year-old niece, hurtling towards a stranger in black jeans and skater shoes. It would be terrible and more likely than not, end in tears and bruises, and as the impact was made Wonwoo instinctively flinched away.

The stranger let out a high-pitched yelp and Jinsook screamed, but there were no telltale thumps of bodies falling onto the concrete floor.

Cautiously, Wonwoo opened one eye to inspect the damages. Jinsook was upright, and although she looked like a deer caught in the headlights, she didn’t look like she was harmed at all. She was staring straight up at the face of the person she had collided with, and Wonwoo followed her gaze.

Soonyoung returned Jinsook’s frozen stare, an unreadable expression on his face. Since Wonwoo had seen him last he had cleaned up a bit: his bright pink hair was now appropriately tousled, and a proper metal tag announcing his name pinned above the Academy stitchwork.

“Jinsook?” Soonyoung got down on one knee to meet her at eye level, his head tilted as he checked her over for any bruises or scrapes. “What are you doing here? Are you okay?” He used a gentle hand to brush her bangs out of her hands, then suddenly reached into his pocket and pulled out one of his black barrettes from earlier, clipping her bangs out of her face. His eyebrows were knit together in concern, and his frown served to exemplify the softness of his face.

“Where’s your mom?” He picked her up swiftly, and although Jinsook was stiff, she was unmistakably used to Soonyoung carrying her around. If Wonwoo wasn’t distracted by how confused he was, he would’ve felt his heart swelling with endearment. Soonyoung eyes settled on Wonwoo for the first time.

“Are you her dad?” Soonyoung asked, looking Wonwoo up and down as if to assess his fatherly-ness, and Wonwoo could see that he had no recognition from their indirect meeting earlier at the ticket booth. But that was beside the point.

“W-what?!” Wonwoo stuttered.

“Are you Jinsook’s d—”

“G-god, no! That’s disgusting!” He said it on impulse, and winced internally at Soonyoung’s aghast expression. “I’m her uncle,” Wonwoo further explained whilst reaching his arms out for Jinsook.

Soonyoung’s brief panic subsided, and he looked at Wonwoo with exasperation. He passed the little girl over, and their hands brushed as they made the trade (Soonyoung’s hands were warm and soft. But again, besides the point).

Jinsook immediately clung to Wonwoo like a koala, and sniffled into the sweater beneath his jacket. She was a tough little girl, but still very shy. Coupled with the shock of running into Soonyoung, Wonwoo knew she wouldn’t want to let go of him for a while.

He patted her back soothingly, then looked up at Soonyoung. “I’m really sorry about that; we didn’t want to miss the show, so we ran over here, and...” he trailed off as Soonyoung continued to stare at him—no, at Jinsook. “A-are you okay?”

Soonyoung let a crooked grin grace his features, nodding at Wonwoo. “She’s fast, but she’s tiny,” he rubbed at his knee absentmindedly. “I’ll be fine.” He concluded, and they shared a grin. “You guys should enter the theater now. There’re probably still a  
few seats right at the top.”

“No, we’re definitely too late and—” Soonyoung cut him off with a shake of his head, laughing as he pulled open one of the doors.

“Trust me, they’ll be starting a little late anyway. Now go!” For the second time that day Wonwoo was confronted with darkness and dim lighting, this time warm and orange emanating from further down the corridor. He turned back towards the door only for it close in his face.

Wonwoo adjusted Jinsook in his arms and sighed, walking into the planetarium resignedly. He ignored the impressive layout of the projection screen that stretched from the floor and arched over the audience, and headed straight for the top tier of audience seats. He did his best not to jostle Jinsook as he sat down in the plush seat, not that it mattered too much.

She was definitely asleep: her breathing had evened out, and her tense grip on his jacket had slackened (if Wonwoo really paid attention he would’ve felt the wet spot on his sweater, from where she was drooling).

How did Soonyoung know Jinsook? And Seulgi too, considering that he had asked after her first. Soonyoung obviously had no clue who Wonwoo was, despite Wonwoo knowing who he was. Well, vaguely knowing who he was. He was so playful that it was nearly obnoxious, yet so careful Jinsook didn’t even cry; there was a lot more to Soonyoung than he let on, if that wasn’t obvious before.

It became apparent that there was someone using a microphone and speaking to the audience, but Wonwoo had tuned it out in favor of thinking about Soonyoung. He sat up in the reclining seat in order to look at the stage at the bottom of the amphitheater, and felt his heart stutter.

“The Tour of the Universe will be starting in just a few moments, but first let me give you guys a bit of background,” Soonyoung spoke, giving the crowd a gentle smile. His pink hair was impossible to ignore, and Wonwoo suspected it was intentional. “Our Universe is expanding at an exponential rate. But if it’s expanding, then doesn’t that mean that our Universe was smaller?”

“The Big Bang!” Someone in the audience yelled out. Wonwoo couldn’t help but chuckle along with the rest of the crowd, while Soonyoung gave them a grin, bright and dazzling even in the low lights.

“Exactly! But let me do my job!” He bantered, making the audience laugh even louder.  
“The Big Bang theory states that our Universe was a high density, high-temperature bubble of matter until something happened to make that bubble pop!” Soonyoung mimicked the sound effect, making the few children in the crowd giggle loudly.

“And that was a few fourteen billion years ago—give or take, a thousand years—but it still accounts for everything we have discovered so far. Now if you want to argue with me about the Big Bang, or much more importantly, you have terrible jokes and puns about space,” he pointed upwards, “I’ll be in that projection booth after the show.”

The lights came down as the gigantic screen lit up, extraordinary visuals of galaxies and quasars distracting most of the audience from Soonyoung’s quiet run up the stairs; Wonwoo, however, was keenly aware of the head of pink hair bouncing towards him and into the projection booth.

 

* * *

  

To the show’s credit, it was incredibly interesting. It touched on subjects Wonwoo had believed he knew, and then completely flipped it on its end. By the end of it, Wonwoo had resigned himself to knowing less about space than he did at the start of it.

He comforted himself with thinking that Soonyoung would stay in the projection booth the whole time, going through his phone or reading a book, completely uninterested in the riveting show playing around him, and definitely not poking his head out of the door and finding Wonwoo right next to him.

It wasn’t that Wonwoo had intended on avoiding Soonyoung. But when looking at the man made his heart jump in ways it hadn’t since college, when Wonwoo found himself thinking about Soonyoung’s soft hands and not the troubling issue of dark matter that was literally playing out before his eyes, seeing him was out of the question.

The ending credits began to roll and the walkway lights were made bright, and as the people around him stood up and shifted towards the exits, Wonwoo stood up as well. The motion roused Jinsook from her nap, and she looked around blearily.

“Good morning, princess.” He grinned at the deep bewilderment on her face, her pout making her cheeks even squishier than usual. Wonwoo resisted the urge to pinch them; it just wasn’t a smart idea at the moment. “How was your nap?”

She moved to look at Wonwoo, her eyelids still heavy with sleep. “I had a dream that you and Soonie and me were at the park, and you pushed me on the swing and Soonie was wearing a big red floppy hat and then—” Jinsook stopped mid-sentence. “And then that’s it.”

“Soonie?” Wonwoo echoed, and as he said it he felt the goosebumps along his forearm rise. A sense of foreboding filled him, and he didn’t dare turn around, where he knew the door of the projection booth was wide open.

“You called for me?” Wonwoo silently cursed the Universe he had spent forty-five minutes learning about, and turned around to face a familiar mischievous smirk. Soonyoung tilted his head and looked at Jinsook kindly. “Hi, Jinsook. I’m sorry for being in the way while you were running.”

“Hi, Soonie.” Still sleepy, she leaned her head against the column of Wonwoo’s neck for support and ignored Soonyoung’s passive-aggression. “I’m sorry for running into you and hitting your knee.” Wonwoo beamed with pride; she didn’t even need to be reminded to be polite now.

Soonyoung shook his head. “My knee is okay! Are you?” He leaned against the doorway, his arms folded across his chest.

She nodded slowly. “I just needed a nap, I think.”

Wonwoo ached to end the conversation there, to walk out of the planetarium and the museum and run until they were back on Lily Street. But his curiosity needed answers.

“How do you know Jinsook?” Wonwoo spoke up. “I guess it would’ve been better to ask this when we first met, but I got distracted.” He shrugged to ease the tension in his back.

“This is my part-time job; I work full time with Seulgi at the studio. We’ve done a few projects together, and when she gets to absorbed in a dance routine, I’m in charge of keeping Jinsook company until she’s done.” Soonyoung explained, tilting his head up to look at him. “Am I wrong to guess that you’re her infamous brother?”

“You aren’t,” Wonwoo grinned, and Soonyoung reflected it. “I’m Wonwoo.” He held out a hand, and Soonyoung stepped out to shake it—Wonwoo hoped that his own hand wasn’t as clammy as he imagined.

The sound of machinery down below called their attention to the stage, where the cleaning crew waited with vacuums and brooms. One of the people looked up at Soonyoung and gestured to his wristwatch.

“Oh, shoot. We should probably get out of here.” Soonyoung muttered and started down the stairs, Wonwoo following behind.

“Did you guys enjoy the show? I’ve seen it three times a week for the past nine months, but it has yet to find its way into my dreams.” Soonyoung turned his head slightly to look at Wonwoo in interest.

“It was interesting,” Wonwoo offered, his focus centered on the steps as they walked down. When they reached the ground, Wonwoo looked up again. “But I did get tired in the middle of it; Jinsook is just like a heated blanket, except she snores.”

Soonyoung let out a loud burst of laughter, while Jinsook sat up straighter, moving her head to glare at Wonwoo.

“I don’t snore!”

“How would you know, you’re sleeping!” Wonwoo countered, making Jinsook even angrier.

They had exited the planetarium, and he realized that Soonyoung was leading them to the front doors of the museum; it was closing time. With the expansion of space, Soonyoung moved to walk beside Wonwoo rather than in front.

“NONU’S CRUSHING ON A LOT OF BOYS TODAY.” Wonwoo gasped, shocked at Jinsook’s betrayal.

“Jinsook, that’s a lie!” For her information, it was just one boy.

“No, it’s not! Mommy told me lying is bad, and I always listen to Mommy!” Jinsook argued. She proceeded to raise a hand, holding up three fingers. “You liked the yellow-haired boy who gave us banana pancakes, and then the red-haired boy, and now the pink—” Wonwoo had used his hand to cover Jinsook’s mouth and muffle the rest of the sentence, but it was useless at that point, and she threw it off to reveal her victoriously evil grin.

Soonyoung quirked an eyebrow and smirked at Wonwoo. ”Lots of boys, huh?”

“Just one!” Wonwoo said assertively, but then snapped his head to look at Soonyoung and shook his head vigorously. “I mean—none! No boys!”

Soonyoung threw his head back and laughed; even through his panic, it made Wonwoo’s heart jump.

“Well, I hope that boy is me,” Soonyoung said, coming to a stop beside the information desk. The exit was just a few feet away, but Wonwoo stood in place, frozen. “It is me, right, Jinsook?” Soonyoung stepped closer and whispered, raising a hand to his mouth like it was a secret.

Jinsook looked back at Wonwoo, then turned back to Soonyoung and nodded. “I think so!” she replied, her whisper more like a low toned yell.

Wonwoo felt a warmth from the tips of his ears to the tips of his fingers, and with difficulty, he met Soonyoung’s eyes. They were gleeful and bright, with a sincere eagerness that took Wonwoo’s breath away. It made him feel like his heart was soaring, threatening to break out of his chest and float away.

“I’ll text you tonight,” Soonyoung promised, and then he bit his lip like it would restrain his blinding grin—it only served to flustered Wonwoo more.

“I don’t recall giving you my number.”

“Mutual connection; I hope your sister doesn’t mind me trying to court her brother.” Soonyoung shook his head, his brow furrowed in mock worry. After a moment he looked at Wonwoo once more and gave him a small, hopeful grin. “I’ll see you around?”

“Definitely.”

 

* * *

 

(Later that night, in the safety of his apartment, Wonwoo’ll quick search the other shows and find that another planetarium show was being narrated by Neil deGrasse Tyson. An internal debate will proceed, questioning whether or not it’d be worth it to buy the admission ticket just to watch all the shows.)

(He does.) (Definitely not because of Soonyoung.)

(Definitely.)


End file.
